FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE NCAA TALLAHASSEE REGIONAL JUNE 2, 2017 GAME TWO: TENNESSEE TECH / FLORIDA STATE Mike Martin, Head Coach Florida State Opening Statement: “That one obviously hurt. When you had a pitching performance that was literally unbelievable. Drew Parrish was dominating. Seven innings of two hit baseball, 12 strikeouts. It was a beautiful thing but it’s a nine‐inning game and you have to tip your hat to Tennessee Tech. They did a good job of getting it done. Obviously, we’re not out of it. We’ve got a tough road ahead of us. Starts against a very good UCF club tomorrow at noon.” On what’s said in the locker room after a game like this: “Just be sure that they’re not going to take this game to the ball park tomorrow. It’s over with, we have to be ready to go tomorrow.” On pulling Drew Parrish: “He was at 97 (pitches). Drew (Carlton) was available, we had two or three right handed hitters coming up in a row. That was the reason.” On disappointment of base running mistakes: “Doing my best to suppress that because that is obviously something that is not what our program is about.” On advice from 2008 game experience of losing the first game and coming out: “It’s just something that we all know, it’s a tough road. We just have to trust each other. We’ve got pitchers that are ready. (Tyler) Holton will go tomorrow. We’re looking at tomorrow just like we looked at today.” On FSU being a good fighting team: “I think what is the most encouraging thing about being in a position like this is I know the guys. They’re hurting. They’re hurting bad right now. We were coming off of a big time high. We’re back down to earth. We have to just overcome it and get out there tomorrow and battle. We know that UCF is very good. We have to be solid tomorrow. Can’t make the mistakes tomorrow that we made tonight. The mistakes have nothing to do with us getting beat, we got beat. Those guys beat us.” Drew Parrish, Starting Pitcher On what was working for you this game: “Getting ahead and staying ahead with my curveball. Expanded the zone with two strikes and making them chase. I knew if I was going to throw fastballs at fastball counts they were going to tee off on it. They’re good at hitting fastballs so I had to incorporate two pitches and keep them off balance.” On tournament play: “It’s tournament ball, anything can happen. I just try my best to put my team in a position to score and win. That’s all we’re here to do is win.” FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE NCAA TALLAHASSEE REGIONAL JUNE 2, 2017 GAME TWO: TENNESSEE TECH / FLORIDA STATE Matt Bragga, Head Coach Tennessee Tech: Opening Statement: “It was a good pitching game. I think pitching and defense played a huge part for both sides. (Michael) Wood and Moths (Travis Moths), they were phenomenal for us. When you get good pitching, you got a chance to stay in the game, as long as the defense is good, and we have good defense. That kept us in the game, even when our bats were not doing very good because (Drew) Parrish was doing such a good job. We hung around, we continued to pitch and defend, did just enough offensively to get to the bullpen, and then we were able to expand and get ahead. Then Moths shut it down in the ninth (inning). It was a good win. They’re resilient, they fight, that’s what they do, that’s what they’ve done all year, and that’s just who this ball club is.” On the come‐back in the eighth inning: “My mind is in the game and the minute I’m like ‘oh my gosh were in trouble’, we’re in trouble. I don’t think you can ever show that as a coach ‘oh my gosh we’re in trouble’, but I’m not going to lie where there were points in the game where this guy (Drew Parrish) struck out 12 guys in four innings and you’re like ‘uh‐oh we might be in trouble’. Honestly, that is the worst, I don’t mean this negative towards our guys, but that is the worst I’ve seen us offensively. I tip my hat to that young man (Drew Parrish) because he was phenomenal tonight. Maybe he’s always like that, I don’t know, but he had our number. As a coach, you got to keep your guys believing that we’re going to come back, we’re going to fight, and we’re going to win this game. But more than anything, our players do that amongst themselves. That’s the special thing about this group; it’s a group of young men that is so resilient, but has incredible leadership. They lead each other to continue to fight.” On winning against Florida State Head Coach, Mike Martin: “It’s awesome because you know. I don’t really look at it that way because Mike Martin is an icon in this industry and profession and they are an incredible baseball team with a head coach that we all know is one of the greatest of all time, he’s right in that category. But it’s certainly not a Matt Bragga thing; it just happened tonight and we got a few balls that went down the line and be able to pull out a victory. You know, they’re a heck of a baseball team, that we all know.” On how big of a win this type of game is for the program: “It’s a great win. I honestly don’t know if we’ve ever won the first game of this NCAA tournament. I know we’ve won an NCAA tournament game before, but the first one is really important anytime you go into a tournament setting. So it is big. Even just to get out of our league, we’ve won multiple championships, three championships in the past eight years, but we haven’t gotten out of a conference tournament in years. So just to get out of that thing is a big deal because sometimes tournaments don’t go the way you want them to go. I do know this, it’s fun to win and fun to win that first baseball game.” On the performance of the pitching staff: “I think sometimes people overlook our pitching. I don’t read much, like all the articles, because I don’t even know how to work some stuff. The bottom line is that pitching gets overlooked. Listen, our league is an offensive league; it’s what it is. Some parks play more offensive. The ERA can be a little skewed, let’s be frank, it can be a little skewed. This is a great pitcher next to me (Michael Wood), this guy is good, and I think we all saw that tonight. There is skill with four pitches. Quite honestly, his curveball and slider were just ok tonight; I’ve seen them much better. To do what he did with the fastball, changeup, and mix in a wrinkle, when it’s not even his best, is outstanding when you’re considering Florida State. Then Mo’ (Travis Moths) over here is a dynamite. I know again you look at the ERA and go ‘well again it’s the ERA’. It’s an offensive league in offensive parks and we have guys that can pitch. We’re going to continue to have guys that can pitch and I believe that. This is a pitching staff that is overshadowed over what I consider a very high‐octane offense.” On maintaining success after a huge win: “I think our guys are pretty good at that. When you are fighting for conference championships and tournament championships, that’s what that is for. It may not be against the names, the Auburn, the Florida State’s per se, but it’s the same thing. When you have one game to win to clinch the conference season regular championship, there is pressure there. Maybe you win with a walk‐off the night before and come in to the game knowing you’re one win away, it’s very similar. I will say this; we get to face a guy tomorrow night that is one of the best in the country. (Casey) Mize is phenomenal. I told Coach (Butch) Thompson, I said ‘hey, you’re not going to throw him now, you don’t need to throw him against us’. So he’s like ‘Brad you’re not going to pull that one.’ So we get an opportunity to go tomorrow against one of the finest in the country and we’re excited for the challenge. We’ll see what it brings. We have a good offense and we understand how it is. We understand our guys are grounded. Sure it’s ok to be excited for a little, I’m going to let them enjoy it, they should enjoy that win. It’s a big win against a big program with a big tradition. But (Tennessee) Tech is an academic school man, guys understand how to get back down and that consistent manner of not getting too high or too low and they do a very good job of that.” On who their starting pitcher is tomorrow: “We will throw a young man by the name of Jake Usher. He’s been our game two starter all year. Jake is a good, good arm and a great young man; another warrior like this guy (Michael Wood). He is a warrior and a bull dog.” On the match‐up with Auburn Head Coach, Butch Thompson: “It’s special. There is this unwritten rule that Coach (Brian) Schoop (Former Birmingham‐Southern Head Coach) taught me, ‘You don’t like playing your friends because someone has got to lose’. So you might as well beat them pretty well because then it’s not a big deal. That’s the only bad thing about tomorrow is that someone has got to lose. It is fantastic to go against Butch Thompson, who I admire as a baseball coach but more as a human being.” Ryan Flick, Designated Hitter: On his match‐up with another left handed pitcher when he got a double: “I saw them working in the bullpen and figured they we’re coming in with another match‐up. To be honest, they had much success with me against lefties all night. Just not trying to do too much, that’s what coach told me before going to bat. You don’t need a homerun in those situations, a lot of times you just got to put the ball in play somewhere hard so that’s all I did.” On staying grounded when the offense was not having success early: “We never feel like we’re out of a game. I’ve said that all year. If you don’t come through a certain night, you feel like the guy behind you is going to. It took us a while tonight, but we did finally break through and do just enough. But man, what a performance by our pitchers. They’re the MVPs tonight.” Nick Osborne, Left Fielder: On the mindset to finally get the offense going in a game: “I think the big thing is not to give in to his (Drew Parrish) plan, keep working with our plan. Eventually, with our offense, eventually we’re going to get on a guy. Our pitchers did a great job with keeping us in the game. Just stick to our plan and that’s pretty much it.” On the feeling of contributing after not many at‐bats during the season: “It felt good, it felt real good. Early in the year, I was doing a lot of pitching and with our offense, top of the nation in a lot of categories, it’s hard for me to be mad that I’m not hitting as much, because we have a lot of guys that can do amazing things. Really, for me, it’s just staying the course and when I get a chance, doing the best I can.” Michael Wood, Tennessee Tech Pitcher: On what was working for him tonight: “Our plan was to go right after hitters, make them go after contact. I think I threw 86 pitches through six innings, so I was just making them put the ball in play and make the defense work hard for it.” ‐‐#NCAABaseball‐‐